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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Plausable explanantions of Greek Mythology,
By A Customer
This review is from: Warrior in Bronze (Hardcover)
Warrior in Bronze deals with the life and times of Agamemnon, the king of an ancient Greek city state before and during the time of the Trojan wars. While occasionally tedious, Shipway weaves a good tale of life in ancient Greece as well as offering plausable explanations for a number of figures in the Greek mythos.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
ancient greece,
By
This review is from: Warrior in Bronze (Hardcover)
Shipway's tale deals with the early life of Agamemnon of Mycenae up to the point of his accession to power. Those who have read Homer's Iliad will recognise some of the characters. However, Shipway creates realistic portrayals of men rather than Homer's epic heroes. Hercules, for example, is a thuggish buffoon, little better than an outlaw. Shipway has a scholar's understanding of life in the Greece of that period. Historical records from the time are very sparse and most knowledge is provided by archaeology. The ancient Greece we are more familiar with, Athens, Sparta, Xerxes and so on, lies well in the future. Much of the tale deals with Agamemnon and Menalaus and their father Atreus and evil uncle Thyestes. Priam and Hector of Troy make an appearance, as does the famous Helen, but their roles are minor. The Trojan War lies in the future, perhaps dealt with in another work. The battle scenes, while not epic, are nevertheless absorbing, and there is plenty of skullduggery to hold the reader's interest.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Heroes of the Bronze Age,
By
This review is from: Warrior in Bronze (Hardcover)
George Shipway (1908-82) was an excellent British historical novelist, whose strengths include a strong realism, and whose cavalry background made him well qualified to write about military matters. Not for Mr. Shipway the clouds of mythology; the nasty, brutish and short side of life in ancient times is presented without romanticisation, to an extent that almost makes you feel you're reading eye-witness accounts.Warrior in Bronze is the story of Agamemnon, King of Mycenę, told in the first person from the time of his youth to shortly before that of the Trojan War. The account does not invoke any interventions by supernatural beings (although of course all the characters believe in their own gods); rather, the narration is cleverly constructed of secular events that might easily have given rise to the myths we all know. Looked at objectively, the protagonist is in many ways an abominably selfish person; but he pales by comparison with some of his rivals for power (such as Thyestes). The Machiavellian manoeuvrings of all these, told in a lively narrative style, supported by very clear maps and family trees, form the most gripping fictionalised account of this era that I've yet read. I'm very much hoping I'll be able to get hold of the sequel, King in Splendour. Although this is an American edition, the British spelling is, very properly, maintained throughout.
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